Student Experience

Issues of Wireless Access and Cloud Deployment in Higher Education

Vladlena Benson and Stephanie Morgan

Kingston Business School, Kingston University, London, KT2 7LB, U.K.

Keywords: Mobile Applications, Wireless Networks, eLearning, Higher Education, Student Experience, Information

Security, Cloud Computing.

Abstract: Universal move to wireless learning enabled through mobile apps has been evident over the last eighteen

months in the higher education (HE) sector. Penetration rate of smart phones amongst students have reached

a record high. Universities are investing in mobile applications enabling wireless access to current Learning

Management Systems (LMS), while carefully considering benefits of the cloud for secure and flexible

provision of LMS services. Capabilities of wireless devices present issues of access, presentation and

compatibility of e-learning materials, while cloud infrastructure as a service raises concerns of security as

data is hosted by third parties outside of the corporate firewalls. The research questions are presented for

discussion through the lens of the student experience. A case of a successful move to mobile learning

enablement and cloud deployment concludes the paper and opens a discussion on critical success factors in

wireless e-learning operations.

1 A REALISTIC APPROACH TO

ACHIEVING STUDENT

EXPERIENCE BENEFITS

THROUGH MOBILE

PLATFORMS AND THE CLOUD

With the growing number of mobile devices in the

hands of the younger population, it is only a matter

of time before HE students will be expecting

wireless access to learning materials to complement

and/or replace current Internet-based Learning

Management Systems (LMS). The trend in HE

today, mobility, is driven by the advanced

capabilities and wide availability of mobile devices,

from smart phones to tablet computers.

Mobile platforms for e-learning are an attractive

solution to help engage student community, enrich

learning and help students throughout academic life.

Blackboard Mobile Learn app, available on Android

Marketplace, Blackberry App World or Apple App

store, is one of the leading mobile platforms for e-

learning. Students gain mobile access to their lecture

materials, create discussion forums and posts, blog

and comment on learning progress and resources.

In search of efficiency and flexibility, higher

education institutions are putting cloud computing,

another current trend in HE sector, into practice.

Infrastructure as a service presents an attractive cost

effective option for learning management system

(LMS) provision. The concept of cloud computing

and wireless access to e-learning application leaves

several areas to consider. Capabilities of mobile

devices present issues of access to learning and

teaching resources, presentation of learning

materials, navigation and compatibility of e-learning

materials. On the other hand cloud as infrastructure

as a service presents new challenges to HE in terms

of security and compliance as data is being hosted

by third parties outside of the corporate firewalls.

The ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001) in higher

education today are used to and surrounded by

technology and increasingly expect mobile forms of

communication.

For HE professionals mobile learning is a way of

extending the campus and offering students the

opportunity to learn in whatever situation or context

they prefer. What is unclear is to what extent they

can and will learn in this increasingly informal and

opportunistic mode. Social networking services are

seen by many as the next level of learning

management systems (Benson and Tennakoon,

2012) promising convergence of social and learning

tools. At present, though, mobile learning apps are

399

Benson V. and Morgan S..

Student Experience - Issues of Wireless Access and Cloud Deployment in Higher Education.

DOI: 10.5220/0004124103990402

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Signal Processing and Multimedia Applications and Wireless Information Networks and Systems

(WINSYS-2012), pages 399-402

ISBN: 978-989-8565-25-9

 2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

offering another media for access of LMS

repositories, doing the old things with a new tool.

The paper presents research questions in wireless

learning and teaching for discussion through the lens

of the student experience. A case of a successful

move to mobile learning enablement and cloud

deployment concludes the paper and opens a

discussion over the critical success factors in

wireless e-learning operations.

2 FROM WIRED TO MOBILE

LEARNING: A UNIVERSAL

MOVE TOWARDS WIRELESS

LEARNING

Wireless technology is now entwined with every day

lives; according to a recent survey (LSE Focus,

2007) mobile devices are perceived as a significant

contributor to maintaining quality of life. While for

university students (BlackBoard.com, 2012) a smart

phone represents a ‘key social connector and a

learning tool’. Higher Education institutions

consider provision of mobile services to students to

be an indicator of performance and better quality of

student experience. Earlier approaches to integration

of wireless devices into e-learning process (e.g. see

(Benson, 2008) for overview) focused on access

enablement to online content. Emergence of

powerful and user friendly smart phones and tablet

computers led to proliferation of mobile apps, both

from established elearning systems providers (e.g.

BlackBoard ) as well as independent companies and

in house developments by Universities.

Current mobile apps from popular LMS

providers are less than a year old. Blackboard

Mobile Learn 2.0 offers a rich range of functionality

with advanced usability features. Direct interface to

the learning resources is a key feature of the app

which enables students and instructors access, create

and upload content to LMS. Blogs supporting media

attachments, discussion forums and learning journal

media features promise to bring interactive mobile

learning to a new level. The user interface of the

latest version of BlackBoard Mobile Learn supports

adding most frequently accessed classes to favourite

lists, this bookmarking feature helps manage and

organise learning and teaching process. The latest

version of the app offers threaded hierarchy to

improve the user interface while managing multiple

tasks.

While the new features of the mobile apps are

evolving, it is important to gain a better

understanding of how ubiquitous access to study

materials can improve learning outcomes. The

impact of wireless technology on higher education is

likely to be driven by student experience.

Universities take on investment in the mobile

technology to improve student learning through

wireless devices already at the fingertips of current

students and beat the competition by demonstrating

the importance of staying ahead of the technology

curve.

2.1 Some of the Critical Success

Factors to Consider

Smartphones are effectively accepted by students

either as a link to their social community or a

favoured learning tool, mobile apps have become a

way of life for today’s students. When making a

choice of which university to apply for studying,

whether or not an HE institution supports easy

access to services or information in a way

meaningful to technology savvy younger generation

becomes a key differentiating factor.

The app needs to be easy to access, fast and

should be accessible on a range of mobiles

(interoperable) to ensure that all students with a

smart phone are able to use the system and interact.

If support is needed the app will probably not be

used although online help help is likely to be viewed

positively. The technological aspects will be taken

for granted (unless they go wrong) and so the focus

should be on a visually appealing, easy to use app

that will allow students to share and enable informal

and formal learning at the time and place that best

suits their needs. A mobile experience is profoundly

different to even a laptop, as it is available at all

times and enables them to learn whilst relating to (in

the world of) the concepts about which they are

learning.

2.2 Examples of the Pitfalls to Avoid

What students can see on the mobile learning app

depends on at least two factors:

The ability of a specific wireless device to

display the variety of learning materials that may be

included in the course content. For instance, iPhone,

iPad and iPods running mobile operating system do

not provide support for Flash. Therefore earlier e-

learning materials developed using Flash will be

inaccessible to Apple users.

Instructors have control over which course

content is available through the mobile app.

Therefore options set so that only limited content is

WINSYS 2012 - International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems

400

available to students should be carefully thought

through by academic staff. Pedagogical reasons

should drive the mobile learning platform

development, rather than pure enthusiasm of a new

gadget from technology-centric instructors (Benson

and Anderson, 2010). Students should have a clear

understanding as to what materials are available

through the mobile medium and why others are

accessible only online, and how the mobile app can

help improve their learning and their student

experience on and off campus. As with all learning,

particularly when technology is involved, explaining

how and why different elements are designed in a

particular way will facilitate learning (Ausburn,

2004).

3 CASE: SUCCESSFUL

MIGRATION TO MOBILE

PLATFORM AT KINGSTON

UNIVERSITY

As part of the student information system and

learning management system (called StudySpace)

upgrade Blackboard Mobile Learn application,

available for iPhone, Blackberry and Android phone,

has been launched by Kingston University, UK. The

app allows students flexible mobile access to

StudySpace course content and communication

tools. The mobile platform solution was introduced

in January 2012. By the start of the spring semester,

the mobile learning app already had thousands of

downloads. The rate of rapid adoption illustrates that

the impact of the mobile platform on student

population, demand on computing services provided

by Kingston University and external stakeholders. In

the experience of other HE institutions (e.g. Stanford

University (see (BlackBoard.com, 2012)) that the

number of mobile learning app downloads tends to

exceed the number of enrolled students. The impact

of the mobile platform deployment has a wider

impact on not only on current students, but involves

alumni, parents, and the greater community.

Capabilities of the StudySpace app at Kingston

include access to course content and communication

tools. Course materials most suitable for accessing

on the go are enabled by instructors for mobile

learning. One of the most well received features of

the mobile app is instant communication capability.

Integration of mobile text messaging service with

online announcements as well as Facebook site for

the university are tied in with individual courses and

organisation. This allows for seamless and unified

communication means for students, staff, alumni and

wider community. One of the key objectives of

introducing StudySpace mobile app is to improve

student experience by increasing 24-7 access to

learning technology that is not dependent upon

location. This reflects the social, and increasingly

work, environment to which students are

accustomed.

Furthermore, it enables learning to move in and

out of the classroom in a much easier manner than

laptops as students invariable have their mobile with

them, not always the case for other devices. Class

activities including assessments could use and link

to the mobile app (this also enables movement

between classroom and workplace, for example,

placements or work-based learning – see Couldby,

Hennessey et al., 2011).

4 CHALLENGES TO EXPLORE

Whilst the mobile platform appears a lucrative

solution for engaging learners on and off campus,

the BlackBoard app still suffers drawbacks. User

ranking of the Blackboard Mobile Learn for Android

(GooglePlay, 2012) phones averages at only 2.6 out

of 5 (based on 6,196 reviews) according to Google

Play data in 2012. The app version for iPhone and

iPad (iTunes, 2012) also lags behind in user

reviewers (2.5 stars from 2420 users) based on

iTunes user feedback. So what challenges are ahead

of developers and academic staff alike to help make

a mobile learning platform fulfil its objective to

increase the quality of student experience and

improve learning and teaching?

There are several levels of challenges to address,

including application dependent, service depended,

compliance related and pedagogical underpinning of

the mobile technology.

Application dependent issues reported on the

BlackBoard Mobile user reviews revolve around the

following:

Compatibility Problems – having downloaded

the app students were unable to find their institution

or reported messages of ‘your institution does not

support’ the app.

Application Failure – when accessing

PowerPoint slides app ‘crashes’. Conversion of files

to PDF formats causes application failure.

Device Support Issues – individual wireless

devices will have an impact on what resources are

available and how they will be presented to the user.

One of the most notorious support issues affecting a

wide range of existing learning materials is the Flash

Student Experience - Issues of Wireless Access and Cloud Deployment in Higher Education

401

vs Apple support. BlackBoard Mobile Learn and

other apps base their popularity on their support for

a variety of wireless devices but pockets of

unsupported functionality and varied presentation

between devices remains.

Service provision problems reported relate to

speed of the app loading resources. Slow download

rate of the communication tools and learning

resources are the main causes of concern for mobile

app users. On the other hand, service availability of

the learning management systems maintained by

universities in-house is quite an important factor in

student satisfaction. By moving LMS service

provision to the cloud, service quality and reliability

improves. However, issues of privacy and security

of data transported between cloud service provider

and users on or off campus creates a number of

concerns. These include regulatory issues around

personal data storage and management,

communication of data across borders and other

compliance issues. On the other hand outsourcing of

LMS hosting to a cloud provider enhances security

and reliability of services as professional approach

of cloud vendors may mean better security as well as

business continuity.

Finally, pedagogical underpinning of the

mobile learning apps is far from maturity. How to

ensure that students are not lost in ’virtual learning

space’? How to deliver meaningful learning

experience through a powerful mobile platform but

yet limited in its capabilities at present?

The pedagogic implications of developing

systems that are sufficiently simple to work well on

an app but challenging and interesting to students,

and the extent to which students can and will learn

using these technologies, has yet to be explored.

There may be exciting new pedagogical approaches

that can be taken to make full use of the potential of

mobile. All aspects of the technology potential

should be assessed to consider what new learning

experiences we can offer students. What we can be

certain of is that students will increasingly expect

these services, and they will expect them to work

well. Indeed HE institutions that are able to truly

innovate and enhance learning with mobile apps,

working around the challenges above, could gain

ground quickly.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Whilst mobile platforms for e-learning are still in

early development stages, it is imperative to

consider issues needing research attention and

improvement of software and wireless device

capabilities, as well as pedagogical approaches to

learning in mobile circumstances, in order to assess

objectively technology’s current and future impact

on education.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the Academic

Development Centre and Student Information

Services at Kingston University for their help and

advice in development of this paper.

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